Mumbai: Criteo, the global commerce intelligence platform, has unveiled findings from its Spark of Discovery 2026 report — a study comparing consumer and brand perceptions across India, Australia, and Singapore. The findings reveal that Indian shoppers are more emotionally responsive to impulse triggers and more positively influenced by advertising and influencer content than consumers in other markets across the region. Indian brands, meanwhile, demonstrate significantly stronger conviction in discovery-led growth and return on investment.
Impulse purchasing in India is driven strongly by design, novelty, and joy — more so than in Australia and Singapore. Three-quarters of Indian consumers say joy is important when shopping online. A striking 66% say attractive design drives impulse purchases, compared to 48% in Australia and 59% in Singapore. Similarly, 45% of Indian shoppers cite novelty or limited-edition products as key triggers for impulse buying — well ahead of Australia at 28% and Singapore at 33%. These findings underscore that Indian consumers are not just convenience-led, but highly responsive to emotional and aesthetic drivers that translate directly into commerce outcomes.
Trust builders — including customer reviews, product information, and responsive customer support — play a crucial role in driving brand excitement, positive sentiment, and stronger brand connection among Indian shoppers. 65% of Indian consumers say seeing ads makes them feel positively toward a brand, compared to 46% in Australia and 40% in Singapore. Two-thirds of Indian consumers say receiving a relevant ad at the right moment excites them.
Crucially, India is the only market where influencer effectiveness aligns closely between consumers and brands. 54% of Indian consumers say influencer content excites them — closely matching the 55% of brands who believe influencers drive new users. In contrast, brands in Australia and Singapore tend to overestimate the impact of influencers compared to consumer sentiment, highlighting a clear perception gap. India stands out as the only market where consumer and brand perceptions are closely aligned — indicating a more mature and commercially effective influencer ecosystem.
Brand confidence in discovery-led strategies is strongest in India. While all three markets report high overall effectiveness of discovery strategies — India and Singapore at 99% and Australia at 96% — differences emerge in the depth of conviction. In India, 95% of brands say discovery contributes to brand growth, compared to 84% in Australia. Similarly, 86% of Indian brands express confidence in ROI delivery, versus 75% in Australia, while just 19% of Singapore brands report being very confident.
Medhavi Singh, Country Head, India, Criteo, said, “India’s commerce ecosystem stands out as one of the most dynamic and signal-rich environments. The findings from The Spark of Discovery 2026 report position India as a benchmark market for discovery-led commerce, demonstrating how design, influencer credibility, advertising relevance, and AI-enabled intelligence come together to create meaningful consumer engagement. Indian consumers are highly responsive to experiences that are relevant, context-driven, and rooted in actual shopping behaviour, enabling brands to translate discovery into measurable business outcomes. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in commerce strategies, the opportunity lies in moving beyond fragmented touchpoints to a more unified, intelligence-led approach — where creativity is powered by commerce data, and every interaction is optimized for outcome-based relevance. This is what will define the next phase of growth: discovery experiences that are both relevant to consumers and effective for brands.”
AI Unlocks New Paths to Discovery
Looking ahead, Indian brands are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence to power the next phase of discovery-led commerce. As consumers seek a balance between familiarity and unexpected yet relevant suggestions, personalisation is evolving from perfect personalisation to what the report describes as ‘algorithmic serendipity’ — where AI helps surface products consumers may not have actively searched for but are highly likely to engage with.
According to the report, 93% of Indian brands plan to use AI to improve user experience, while 86% intend to leverage AI to remove guesswork from their strategies — reflecting a clear shift from experimentation to strategic adoption. AI is rapidly emerging as a core enabler of future-ready discovery strategies for Indian marketers.
